Livni sees West Bank withdrawals

May 13, 2007 9:00am

Israel plans to carry out more West Bank pullouts, Tzipi Livni said. The Israeli foreign minister said in an interview published over the weekend that she anticipates further moves like Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.”I can assure you that Gaza is not the last step. We are convinced that to establish a Palestinian state, we have to withdraw from other areas,” she told Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper. “We do not want to control the Palestinians.”Livni gave no further details on the possible scale or timing of such West Bank withdrawals. Israel has said that, even under a peace deal with the Palestinians, it plans to keep major West Bank settlement blocs.